Prayer sent to Carmelo Anthony

Talent lost if Knicks struggle

Credit: AP

Knicks’ Carmelo Anthony reacts after an NBA basketball game against the Miami Heat in New York, Sunday, April 15, 2012.

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NEW YORK — In many ways, you have think this is what Carmelo Anthony wanted. Yesterday afternoon on national television he threw 42 points at the Heat, but the Knicks still suffered a 93-85 loss.

Carmelo had the ball. He was “The Man.” He outscored LeBron James by 13. That 93-85 thing? Just a detail.

“There’s no need for us as a team to put our heads down,” Melo said. “We played hard. We played tough.”

No need to be upset. Not even, apparently, after his team was outscored 18-6 in the last eight minutes.

“I don’t know,” Anthony said of that last stretch. “It was all a blur. I don’t even know what happened. It just happened so fast.”

What happened was that James moved over onto Anthony and put the clamps on him long enough to let Miami on through.

It was good theater in the roundball, but it wasn’t quite the clash of titans expected when the game was grabbed for national television before the season. That’s because the Knicks’ “we’re going to contend” bravado has dissolved into the reality of a team tied at the bottom of the Eastern Conference playoff seedings at tipoff.

Tomorrow night they host the Celtics, a team they were supposed to race by this season. But it hasn’t quite worked out that way.

Oh, they’ll explain it away with injuries and turmoil.

“We didn’t start off too well,” Melo said. “It’s been a roller-coaster season for us as far as injuries, changes, guys coming in and out, coaching changes. But that’s neither here or there.”

But every team has dealt with hurt. The Celts alone are without rotation players Jeff Green, Chris Wilcox and Jermaine O’Neal for the remainder of the season (though in the case of the latter, some involved people think this is a net benefit). And they have had to deal without Ray Allen for stretches.

As for the Knicks’ turmoil, well, whose fault is that?

They’ve done their best to keep alive the soap opera genre, going through a coach and spending much time early engaged in debate about whether their stars would be able to coexist with a point guard who liked to get the ball up the floor quickly and distribute it.

There is still time for the Knicks to get things together, particularly if the ailing Amare Stoudemire can play. But where they are now is on them.

Let’s take this in order:

In 2008, the Knicks hired Mike D’Antoni to coach because they liked the entertaining and successful system he runs.

In 2011, they parted with Wilson Chandler, Danilo Gallinari and others to get Carmelo Anthony, and then paid him a lot of money.

This season they brought in Tyson Chandler, and even though Anthony hadn’t embraced D’Antoni’s way, they retained their coach in the belief that the stars would be better served in a system proven to generate more movement and easier shots.

The Knicks had assembled a roster that had them talking big, but at some point Anthony decided to fight D’Antoni rather than suppress his feelings and remain on the same page with his teammates — a point that didn’t sit well in the dressing room. Sure, Melo wanted to win, but he wanted to do it his way. He still does.

And he had to be getting nervous when Jeremy Lin began lighting up the city and it appeared D’Antoni might keep his job as a result. But eventually the coach said he couldn’t remain without a contract extension. Goodbye Mike. Hello Mike (Woodson).

Look, Carmelo Anthony is an incredible talent, but when one chooses to value that over being part of a team, he opens himself to criticism. And Anthony has received much of that since playing with far greater purpose under Woodson, who lets him sing lead.

Yesterday Melo took 27 shots from the floor and 15 free throws. Then he was able to say, “There was times where we didn’t have no flow on offense. Even when I was out of the game we didn’t have any flow.”